dynamic conservatism plan

Question 1

3 paragraphs

Answer 1

balance the budget - no
build strong economy - no
promote civil rights

Question 2

what evidence is there that eisenhower did get involved in civil rights?

Answer 2

1. Appointment of Earl Warren as a liberal supreme court judge (Oct 1st 1953)
2. Federalising the national guard and sending 1,100 paratroopers in Little Rock
3. Sympathising with the cause (2nd Birmingham church bombing in 1959 caused him to have sympathy, showed sympathy in both states of the union, held a civil rights hearing in 1959, met with leaders)
4. Legislation: Civil Rights Act 1957 and Civil rights Act 1959.

Question 3

What evidence is there that he didn’t promote civil rights?

Answer 3

1. Made racist comments towards Earl Warren, as well as as showing sympathies for the Southerners in the wake of the Southern Manifesto
2. Didn’t get involved in lots of things, including the Autherine Lucy case 1956, which had the most violent mobs in the wake of the Brown ruling or the Emmet Till murder case in 1956
3. He only reacted in little rock for the purpose of maintaining law and order and the upkeep of American hegemony
4. The Lavender Scare of the 1950s, where an executive order from Eisenhower called for the ensuring of the trust of state workers, which resulted in the investigation of all employees for being homosexual.

Question 4

What evidence is there that he built a strong economy?

Answer 4

1. The influence he had over cars, where he signed hte 1954 Housing Act which built 114,000 homes.
2. Building up the car industry with an act for building 41,000 miles of interstate. This created employment and promoted industry by people being able to travel for it.
3. The development of the entertainment and leisure industries under him, with a boom in the music industry, shopping malls and the TV market.

Question 5

What evidence is there that he didn’t develop the economy at all?

Answer 5

1. He did encourage the suburbs, but this had a negative influence on his liberal policies, due to ghettoisation and the white flight (suppression of black people, especially in Chicago, women and the elderly)
2. A lot of the things can be said to have happened because of the war, with people having money from that, not from any of Eisenhower’s actual reforms
3. Truman’s influence can be argued here with him being responsible for signing the GI Bill, which reduced unemployment and secured men in the country.

Question 6

What evidence is there that he balanced the budget?

Answer 6

1. Successfully lowered defence spending against the wants of a more conservative house and senate.
2. His tax policy focused on taxing the rich more (90%) and granting more money to those who need it, such as raising the minimum wage by $1
3. He vetoed expensive legislation, such as the 1959 Housing Bill which wanted loans to the elderly to buy housing which suited their needs and the 1960 Bill to increase postal and federal workers salary.

Question 7

What evidence is there that he didn’t balance the budget?

Answer 7

1. Didn’t really weaken the military-industrial complex, as defence spending continued to make up half the federal budget, thinking it was stealing from the people.
2. By the end of his government, Eisenhower was in a $13 billion dollar deficit, with nearly double the federal budget than what it was under Truman.